Recently my 05 wrx has developed a very disturbing rattle sound from around the turbo area.The rattle is abscent during idle and accurs around 2000RPM and gets faster with the revs building.Theres no smoke or loss of boost or power, and the clutch dos,nt have an effect engadged or disengadged. After checking post threads i hav,nt really been able to find a positive answer. Ive already checked all my mounts and brackets and everything seems solid.Basically after never having the unfortunate experience of turbo failure, i guess i really want to know if rattle can be early warning signs? Im thinking bearings but really have no further clue. Any suggestions?

Yeah thanx man,ive given the heat shield a good inspection after removing intercooler and all seems well. Ive spoken to a few people about the prob and one guy says he had exact same issue and it was the cat. He said they are notorious for breaking and should possibly consider looking in that area as it corrected his rattle goin catless.

If the cat in the up pipe has broken apart, when you take it off be sure to check your turbo for damage and shaft play. If the cat did break up and did get sucked through the turbo its very likely that it could have damaged your turbo. I really hope thats not the case tho, good luck with it.

Yeah cheers i will do that, good advice. My next step is to find a decent replacement pipe if that is the case and the turbo has survived! Mite even think about a high flow cat, duno how it works in the states but we cant get away with no cat over here.

The mid section cat has alredy been removed so i only have the turbo back cat left. Im not familiar with the term up pipe? Dont use that over here its just... Down pipe....mid section....And back box.I assumed up pipe and down pipe were the same???

The up-pipe is the pipe that runs into the turbo from the exhaust manifolds (the exhaust is flowing upwards at this point). Then after the turbo you have your down pipe (exhaust moving back down). then out to the cat back section.

See in America, we use simple terms for stuff and aren't sophisticated like you English (this is making fun of us not you trust me). Oh the exhaust is traveling up in that pipe??! UPPIPE! Oh now it's moving down?!?! DOWNPIPE! Oh that thing muffles the sound a bit??!? MUFFLER!